Advertisement
Published: March 12th 2018
Edit Blog Post
Day 15: Nelson to Tapawera, 80 km. The rhino leads the way and the Donkey loses his phone
The Donkey had the best sleep ever and woke up refreshed at 6.30 a.m., did some administration, had breakfast and set out, accompanied by the rhino who was going to keep the Donkey company till Dovedale, 40km South of Nelson. But first the Donkey stopped at Village Cycles in Richmond to get Spot checked out. Spot had started creaking but the Donkey could not work out which precise part of Spot was creaking. He looked and listened but was none the wiser, so it was time to find an expert. Spot said to his master, please find me a good one, I have had some rough ones in the past which make me feel worse after their treatment. Village Cycles is owned by a tough rooster who is married to a lovely little German field mouse. They are both friends of the Donkey and the rooster promised the Donkey that Spot would get the best mechanic. The Donkey handed Spot over to an exotic bird from South America, with beautiful feathers on the top of his head. Spot started glowing when he
saw the bird. Spot knew a good mechanic when he saw one. The bird said to the Donkey leave him with me, I sort him out and Spot winked at his master and said, go and have a coffee, you won’t recognise me when he is finished with me. The Donkey was relieved and with his mate the rhino went to have a coffee. For good measure the Donkey had a second breakfast with his coffee.
Indeed when they came back after an hour Spot was unrecognizable, sporting a new chain, brake pads and rear tire. He smelled of eau de cologne which is the signature of any good bicycle mechanic. The Donkey considered to have some treatment as well of some sort so he could smell the same as Spot but dismissed the idea as quick as it came into his head. What was he thinking!
This was the best bike shop in New Zealand, if not the world, Spot told his master, and he would know as he had been to a few. The Donkey bought some supplies and they were all happy and Spot glided along the road with a big smile on his handlebars and the rhinoceros and the Donkey had many chats and the weather was nice and the country roads they traveled on were very scenic, quintessential New Zealand, the Donkey thought, not quite knowing the meaning of the word but it sounded good.
The rhino was a strong bike rider, strong as an ox, thought the Donkey but then corrected himself, strong as a rhino, of course, as a rhino is stronger than an ox, surely. They rode up the Dovedale hill and at the top the Donkey stopped to make a photo, but he could not find his phone anywhere. He looked here, there and everywhere, opened all his bags and his pockets and some more but could not find the blasted thing. Must have left it at the coffee or bike shop, after all, I am a donkey, he thought. He decided to forget about it and come back to the issue at a later time as he had learned that he could only handle so many worries at any one time and he was already worried about trying to find the way once the rhino left him. The rhino said he would go back past the cafe and bike shop on his way home to check. So they carried on and just before Dovedale the Donkey heard his phone go. Could you believe it, the Donkey couldn’t, but stopped anyway and emptied his back pack on the road and there it was, in his breakfast bowl, hidden under a roll of toilet paper. He did not know to laugh or cry so he did neither but the rhino had a good laugh. They said goodbye and the Donkey carried on alone, through the valleys, and over the hills of the Province called Tasman, after Abel Tasman (who was one of the Donkey’s hero’s but that is for another story), till he arrived in Tapawera, in good time, at 2.30 p.m. Showpony and his missus arrived at the same time, they had been out on their bikes looking for the Donkey but one of the gravel roads was closed due to logging and the Donkey had to go a different way, and there was no phone cover, so the Donkey could not call is friend to tell him, even if he had found his phone back, so they missed each other but met again in Tapawera. It is easy to find one another in Tapawera as it is not a big place, actually it is so small that the Donkey was convinced that he would find his way out of Tapawera in the morning without going the wrong way once. Perhaps Tapawera should be the capital of New Zealand, if not the world, he contemplated, as everyone would get along and as it was easy to find one another and get out of the place when you wanted. But he knew the Germans and probably the Americans would not agree with his proposal so he let it go.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.128s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0588s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb